Today was pretty much just a travel day for us. We packed early, said goodbye to David, and caught a flight to Gaungzhou. This is the city where the US Consulate is located, so it is the last stop for all international adoptions from China back to the USA.

Alexis handled the flight well. a nice gentleman swapped seats with me so that I could sit next to Monica and Alexis. Monica figures it was because he saw a little kid and didn’t want to endure the noise for the flight. Either way, it worked well for us. Alexis wanted to sit in my lap, so she sat looking out the window for awhile. When she started to get a little squirmy, we gave her a custard pie (like a Hostess cupcake without the frosting on top). That kept her occupied until she finished it. Then she wanted to swap to Mommy’s lap so she could nap the rest of the way. Yay for us! First flight went smoothly. Even Christian ended up sitting next to a Chinese teacher who asked him all kinds of questions about American schools. He stayed engaged pretty much the entire trip.

Once we landed, we grabbed our bags and met Kathy. She’s a very sweet CCAI employee who is tasked with keeping us in line for our entire trip here. She had our private van lined up and ready to go to the hotel. During the 30 minute ride, she filled us in on who she is and what we will be doing. It was great to get to know her before hand. She did everything possible to make us feel comfortable. Considering Monica was still mourning having to leave David, she needed this. 😉

The China Hotel, Marriott is a great facility. It is giant, too. It’s like a mall and a hotel all rolled into one. The room reminds us of Hong Kong at the Hyatt. Since I’m a Marriott Rewards member, we get access to the Executive Lounge upstairs. Christian and I plan to escape there for snacks and drinks pretty much every day we are here.

When we checked in, we were told that we could have Papa Johns or Subway delivered to our room. Both restaurants are right across the street. We opted for Subway since we had our fill of pizza the last week or so. Kathy called the concierge with our order and we were told it would be about 45 minutes. About 20 minutes later we got a call from the concierge saying that Subway was too busy and it would take at least two hours to get us our order. Keep in mind that we hadn’t eaten since 9AM. This was close to 3PM. We decided to trek to the Subway and stand in line to get it. I’m glad we did. The THREE Subway employees were apparently overwhelmed by the TWO customers they had sitting in the dining area. I can only imagine the horrors of such a busy day. <eye roll> Anyway, we communicated well enough to get our sandwiches, chips, and drinks and then enjoyed our meal with the other two patrons.

We went back to the hotel and checked out the playground where we ran into the family we had met in Nanning. Their week had gone well. We met another family who had adopted a little boy from north of Guangzhou. He is a very small framed little boy. While he was nearly two years old and walking well, they were having to put on 12 month old clothes on him, and they would still hang off his little frame. He is such a cute little boy. He had his cleft lip repaired already. He had a great time running around the playground trying new things out. We then decided to check out the pool scene. Lots of folks enjoying it. The water was a bit cool, so I’m not sure if we will go swimming this week or not. We decided to just go to the room and rest. Alexis decided to do a little creative coloring with some new markers she found. One changed bedspread later, we were back in business. (Mental note: She is a two year old. Remember that from now on.)

After an evening visit from Kathy, we were ready to just go to bed and catch up on our sleep. Tomorrow’s a big day. It’s the clinic day. All of the little ones get checked out by the local clinic to receive clearance to leave China. For the most part, it’s an easy process. Then, since she’s over two years old, they draw blood for a TB test. That’s where it’ll get interesting.